Review of Playing God (1997) by Marko S — 21 Apr 2010

Well, it is full of b-movie cliches, mostly from noirs of the 40-es and neo-noirs of the 80-es. we have some shady characters. yet, we have no detective... but we have a doctor.

David duchovny is a doctor, not ordinary doctor, but a former surgeon who has lost his license because doing so much drugs. by pure accident, he saves the life of some gangster and one thing leading to another, he meets a rock star-like criminal in the field of piracy who rewards him with money and a chance to be a "doctor" again, patching up those who can't really go to the hospital. and we have the gangster's girlfriend, femme fatale played by angelina jolie, and some ambitious feds... one thing leads to another, and we have a reasonably good, but not very original thriller.

But, what saves the day? first of all, voice-over is so fucking humorous. it looks like a cross-over of some detective "saxophone monologues", you remember that from noirs, and some wise-ass pulp fiction shit, and it goes well with the atmosphere of being stoned in L.A. the second are the performances of the two guys. duchovny has a naturally lost face, proven a decade later in TV series californication, and is simply great as a fuck-up doc. timothy hutton has something to do with mephisto. he is a demon, but demon who gives, both money and fun, but eventually takes some of the soul. he is cheerful, but dark, emotional, but cold-blooded. and self-centered.

Actually, it's not worth giving any money, but if it comes around on TV, watch it. it's good enough.